Whitbread's first-quarter sales rose 3.1pc as shivering customers avoided the
company's restaurants to take shelter at its Costa Coffee shops during the
coldest Spring in 50 years.

Like-for-like sales at Costa Coffee rose 8pc in the 13 weeks to May 30, while those at its Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurant arm were flat, Whitbread said in a trading update on Tuesday.

Andy Harrison, chief executive of Whitbread, said: "We did have the coldest spring since 1962 and I think what happens is in the evening, people have some discretion as to whether to go out to eat or, at the margin, to stay at home in the warm, and if you were to look at the results of all the restaurant groups, you'll see the same picture."

"With Costa, people tend to go out during the day, whether it's to go shopping or to go out to work, and then they get a bit cold and they again, at the margin, choose to sit in the warm with a lovely cup of Costa in their hand."

Mr Harrison said Costa was resistant to the recession both because the coffee is "a relatively low priced treat" and because the shops have become "an important meeting point".

Whitbread said it plans to open around 300 new Costa stores worldwide and announced it has raised its target for Costa Express machines, which are self-service coffee bars, to 750 units in the full year. Mr Harrison said 100 of the new shops will be based in China and just under half will be in the UK.

Jeffrey Young, editor of The London Coffee Guide and Managing Director at Allegra, a management consulting firm specialising in coffee, said coffee shops were largely resistant to the recession because of their social aspect and low price.

He said: "Coffee venues are not just about the coffee itself, it's about a place to go, it's a place to be.

"You might not go out an buy that big expensive dress in the shopping mall but you're going to go and have that coffee with a friend."

Mr Young said Costa had done well partly because of the style of their shops, which has taken inspiration from independent shops, as well as their coffee quality.

Whitbread's Premier Inn hotels also had fairly strong results, and reported a 2.7pc increase on like for like sales.

Mr Harrison said the London market for the budget hotels was competing against last year's "once in a lifetime Olympic comparators". He also dismissed any competition from Travelodge in a conference call this morning, and said: "We aren't seeing any more competition."

Speaking about both Premier Inn hotels and Costa, Mr Harrison said: "The competitive performance of both of those businesses is really very good I think."

The company is on track for their five-year plans to double Costa sales from £1bn to £2bn and to increase the number of Premier Inn UK rooms 52,000 to 75,000 by 2018.

Overall, including the company's hotels and restaurants, Whitbread saw a 3.1pc rise in like for like sales, which it said was in line with their plans.

Mr Harrison said he couldn't predict future sales for the restaurant branch given the instability of recent events.

He said: "It's hard to say because the restaurant business has been affected by, we had a lot of snow back in January, February, we had this cold spring, we had Jubilee holidays last year. So I think we really need to see a period of normality before we call the shots on where the industry is going."